The Game Awards 2015: Complete Winners List & Announcement Recap

Geoff Keighley’s second annual The Game Awards event just concluded, live from the Microsoft Theater in Log Angeles. Previously, the biggest annual celebration of video games was hosted on Spike TV, also organized by Keighley, until they parted ways and he launched its much improved successor.

This year’s award ceremony ran tightly, clocking in at exactly two hours, and while several industry celebrities took to the stage to present key awards, the majority of other categories were mentioned as side notes to make room for live performances and a few memorable tributes.

First let’s take a look at what the judges (and fans in applicable categories) selected as the best of the year for The Game Awards 2015.

Game of the Year

Bloodborne

Fallout 4

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Super Mario Maker

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Developer of the Year

Bethesda Game Studios

CD Projekt Red

From Software

Kojima Productions

Nintendo

Best Independent Game

Axiom Verge

Her Story

Ori and the Blind Forest

Rocket League

Undertale

Best Mobile/Handheld Game

Downwell

Fallout Shelter

Lara Croft Go

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate

Pac-Man 256

Best Narrative

Her Story

Life Is Strange

Tales From The Borderlands

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Until Dawn

Best Art Direction

Batman: Arkham Knight

Bloodborne

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Ori and the Blind Forest

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Best Score/Soundtrack

Fallout 4

Halo 5: Guardians

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Ori and the Blind Forest

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Best Performance

Ashly Burch as Chloe Price (Life is Strange)

Camilla Luddington as Lara Croft (Rise of the Tomb Raider)

Doug Cockle as Geralt (The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt)

Mark Hamill as The Joker (Batman: Arkham Knight)

Viva Seifert (Her Story)

Games for Change Award

Cibele (Nina Freeman)

Her Story (Sam Barlow)

Life Is Strange (DONTNOD Entertainment / Square Enix)

Sunset (Tale of Tales)

Undertale (tobyfox)

Best Shooter

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3

Destiny: The Taken King

Halo 5: Guardians

Splatoon

Star Wars Battlefront

Best Action/Adventure Game

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate

Batman: Arkham Knight

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Ori and the Blind Forest

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Best Role Playing Game

Bloodborne

Fallout 4

Pillars of Eternity

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Undertale

Best Fighting Game

Guilty Gear Xrd

Mortal Kombat X

Rise of Incarnates

Rising Thunder

Best Family Game

Disney Infinity 3.0

Lego Dimensions

Skylanders: SuperChargers

Splatoon

Super Mario Maker

Best Sports/Racing Game

FIFA 16

Forza Motorsport 6

NBA 2K16

Pro Evolution Soccer 2016

Rocket League

Best Multiplayer

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3

Destiny: The Taken King

Halo 5: Guardians

Rocket League

Splatoon

Most Anticipated Game

Horizon Zero Dawn

No Man’s Sky

Quantum Break

The Last Guardian

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

esports Player of the Year

Kenny “KennyS” Schrub

Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok

Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer

Peter “ppd” Dager

Syed Sumail “Suma1L” Hassan

esports Team of the Year

Evil Geniuses

Fnatic

Optic Gaming

SK Telecom T1

Team SoloMid

esports Game of the Year

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Dota 2

Hearthstone

League of Legends

Trending Gamer

Total Biscuit

Christopher “MonteCristo” Mykles

Greg Miller

Markiplier

PewDiePie

Best Fan Creation

GTA V – Targets (Hoodoo Operator)

Real GTA (Corridor Digital)

Portal Stories: Mel (Prism Studios)

Super Mario Maker e-Reader Levels (Baddboy78 / theycallmeshaky)

Twitch Plays Dark Souls (Twitch Community)

Beyond the awards themselves, this year’s Game Awards event was highlighted by some exciting and touching moments throughout the program. Greg Miller, of Kinda Funny, gave a rallying speech about the importance of game developers and recognizing and cheering on their hard work. Host Geoff Keighley organized a touching tribute to Nintendo legend Satoru Iwata who passed away earlier this year and later took a righteous stab at publisher Konami by calling them out for allegedly blocking Hideo Kojima from appearing at the show to accept his award.

Mark Hamill took to the stage, making a few jokes about his absence on the Star Wars 7 poster, doing a few Joker impressions, and teasing his role in the upcoming Star Citizen game before presenting an award. And there was even a chunk of time devoted to honoring Westwood Studios (Command & Conquer) co-founders Brett Sperry and Louis Castle who won this year’s Industry Icon Award.

As for announcements, Telltale teased a Batman game coming in 2016, Rocket League got its official Xbox One announcement, and Psychonauts 2 was unveiled to be in development. Far Cry Primal, Star Citizen, Uncharted 4 and others had new gameplay trailers as well.

Share your thoughts on the event, the winners, and the premieres in the comments!